Chuck Versus the 42

by: Sam Lincoln

Disclaimer: The characters of Chuck and Alias both belong to their respective rights holders and I make no claim of ownership on either

Summary: The Ring steals information, Chuck has a flash, and who is Sydney Bristow and how is she involved?

Spoilers: This story takes place after the events of Alias and during season 3 of Chuck, in between Chuck Versus the Honeymooners and Chuck Versus the Tooth

Act 4

Ring agents walked over to the members of Team Bartowski, relieved them of their weapons, then bound their hands behind their backs with plastic zip-ties. "Sydney, Vaughn are you all right?" Chuck asked.

"We're fine Chuck, don't worry about us," Sydney said.

"Sorry, it's just worrying is a thing I do, and this seems like a really good time and place to do some worrying."

"Shut your trap Bartowski before someone does it for you," Casey said.

"You would be wise to listen to your friend Mr. Bartowski." A voice Chuck did not recognize, but Sydney and Vaughn did based on the shocked expressions on their faces. A man with sandy blonde hair stepped into view. Sydney attempted to stagger to her feet to rush the man only to be knocked down by one of the guards. "Tut tut Sydney, you never did know when to play nice."

"I should have known you were involved Sark," Vaughn said. "This had your special stink all over it."

"Oh Michael you always did say the nicest things," Sark said. "And hello to the Burbank division of the CIA. I must confess I've wanted to meet you for quite some time. Your reputation is most formidable."

"Too bad I can't say the same for you Mr. Sark was it?" Sarah asked.

"I suppose I could tell you that much. My name is Julian Sark, perhaps you are familiar with it?"

Chuck felt the Intersect take hold and images coursed through his mind telling him everything the CIA computer knew about Julian Sark. As he shook his head one overriding image stood out from all the rest. "You, you tortured your own father?"

"I am impressed. You are as well informed as I was lead to believe. Which does raise the question, if I was willing to take a blowtorch to my own father, what am I capable of doing to you?"

Chuck gulped audibly. "I'm guessing hugs aren't on that list?"

"Don't let him fool you Chuck. Sark isn't a psychopath. He's a mercenary always looking out for what's best for him," Sydney said.

"You know I actually missed these little chats we used to have," Sark said to Sydney. "How many years has it been since, Hong Kong wasn't it?"

"What are you doing working for the Ring Sark?" Sydney asked, ignoring his jibe.

"Well, what with Sloane out of the picture, and your mother's unfortunate accident I had to look somewhere for employment, and The Ring offered me a very persuasive compensation package. In return I just had to tell them everything I knew about Milo Rambaldi, the Passenger, and Project Christmas."

"You son of a bitch, the entire production of robbing the CIA wasn't to get information. It was to draw me out."

"Wait, I don't understand," Chuck said.

"I am the Passenger Chuck. Project Christmas, that's me too. The Ring didn't want intelligence, they wanted me," Sydney said. "Though I don't understand why."

Sark flashed Sydney a leer. "That's for me to know and you to find out. Now say goodbye to your husband and new friends. I'm afraid you won't be seeing them ever again." He walked over to Sydney and hauled her up to her feet.

"Sark you asshole, if you hurt Sydney I will kill you!" Vaughn shouted.

"You are hardly in a position to make threats Vaughn. Seeing as I am the one who has the gun to your head."

"Do you know what your problem always was Sark?" Sydney asked.

"Oh please, enlighten me."

Sydney looked over at Sarah who gave her a short nod. "Overconfidence," Sydney said before pitching her head back into Sark's, forcing him to stagger and release his grip on her. Sydney dropped and rolled to one side, taking down two of the Ring guards in the process.

While Sydney and Sark sparred verbally, Sarah had taken the opportunity to retrieve one of her secreted throwing knives and cut herself free from her bindings. Then, when Sydney made her move Sarah leapt into action. She threw the knife at the closest guard, catching him in the throat. She then pushed Chuck to the ground before launching herself at another of the guards, laying him out with a roundhouse kick to the head. Casey threw himself at the last man standing guard over them, driving him back into a shipping crate. The force of the impact caused the Ring agent to drop his gun.

Chuck squirmed around and worked his bound hands out from behind his back. He gingerly reached over and picked up Sarah's bloody knife. "Casey, Casey, I've got the knife!"

"Great now get over here and cut me loose!" Casey said. The Ring agents recovered from the initial shock of the CIA agents' attack and started to open fire on them. Casey and Chuck ducked behind the shipping container and cut themselves free from their bindings. "Go get Morgan ad the van, we'll meet you outside."

"But you're massively outnumbered and I can help," Chuck said then pointed as his head. "Intersect remember?"

Casey glanced out from behind the shipping container to take stock of the situation. Sarah and Vaughn had both retreated to cover and Sark had managed to overpower Sydney and was dragging her out of the room. "Chuck the last thing we need is for you to get captured by the Ring. Get out of here, get Morgan, save us."

Bullets pinged off the side of the shipping container forcing Casey and Chuck back into cover. "Well I'm sorry Casey, but the guys with guns don't seem interested in cooperating." Chuck thumbed on the radio built into his watch. "Morgan, hey buddy, are you there?" When he was met with static he looked over at Casey. "I think they're jamming us."

Casey rolled his eyes. "Now you have a solid reason to get the hell out of here. How else are we going to escape?"

"I'm sure you are overjoyed at getting your way. How exactly am I going to get to the door without getting shot?"

"Let me worry about that, you just run when I tell you to."

"And don't look back, right?"

"Look, don't look, I don't much care, jut get out of here." Casey looked around the edge of the container again and saw the gun he had knocked free from the Ring agent. "Okay now Chuck!" He shouted as he dove for the gun.

"What, already?" Chuck asked before dashing off in the direction of the door.

Casey's hand wrapped around the pistol and he came up firing, shooting the two Ring agents closest to him. Sarah and Vaughn seized on the opening and rushed the remaining agents.

Chuck reached the door and turned around to see that the fighting had stopped. "Do I still have to get in the van?" He asked Casey.

"Where's Sark?" Sarah asked as she looked around the warehouse.

"Never mind Sark, where's Sydney?" Vaughn asked. "That son of a bitch took her." He pounded a fist against the side of a shipping container in frustration.

Sarah rested a hand on Vaughn's shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll get her back."

Vaughn pulled free from Sarah and walked towards the door. "I know we will, and when we do I'm putting a bullet in Sark's head."

"It is important to have goals," Chuck said. "What?" He asked when he saw the incredulous looks on Casey and Sarah's faces. "Oh right, wife just got abducted, not the best time for jokes, sorry."

-Castle

"Agent Vaughn, you have my complete assurance we are going to do everything in our power to find your wife," Beckman told Vaughn. The group was standing around the conference table in Castle while Vaughn paced angrily in the background.

"Forgive me for saying so, but you damn well better general," Vaughn said.

"Do we know anything about where the Ring could have taken Sydney?" Chuck asked.

"Not at this time," Beckman said. "But we have our best people working on this."

"That's not good enough General, I demand you bring Marcus Dixon in. I need people I can trust."

"Assistant Director Dixon is assisting us with the search for your wife," Beckman said.

"He should be leading the search. Hell he should have been in charge of this operation from day one, not this group of rank amateurs."

"That's not fair," Chuck said. "Casey and Sarah both have years of experience, more than you do even. Okay, maybe I don't have as much time in the field, and sure, Morgan isn't actually a spy, but nothing that happened is his fault. And I know you're upset, I get that believe me, but we know the Ring, and neither you or your friend the Assistant Director does. So you need our help whether you like it or not."

Vaughn's shoulders slumped and he sagged into a chair. "I'm sorry it's…"

Sarah rested a hand on Vaughn's shoulder. "We know, it's fine Vaughn."

"You're just lucky it was Bartowski who spoke first," Casey said. "Because I was going to put you through a wall."

"As soon as I have any new information I will be in contact, good luck agents," Beckman said and killed the video feed.

Morgan felt his phone vibrate, took it out of his pocket, and saw that Awesome was calling him. "Hey man, what's up?" Morgan asked. "Yeah no, I heard about that. You what? Absolutely I'll be right over." He looked over at Casey, Chuck, Sarah, and Vaughn who were all engrossed in looking at documents and maps. "Hey guys, I'm going to head out for a bit. No real emergency, I just need to check on the store. You know how it is, can't leave Lester and Jeff unsupervised for too long." Without waiting for a reply he dashed out of Castle.

"Where's the moron going?" Casey asked without looking up from his folder.

"I don't know, said something about Jeff and Lester," Chuck said. Casey grunted in reply and they returned to work.

Morgan burst into Awesome and Ellie's apartment. "Sorry man, I got here as soon as I could. What's the problem…" Morgan's voice trailed off as he saw the mess that the normally meticulous living room was in. Couch cushions were strewn across the floor, books pulled off their shelves and Morgan was convinced he could hear water running. "Uh Awesome, is everything okay?" Morgan asked in a more concerned voice. He took a tentative step into the living room. "Devon?"

Morgan was startled when a small figure wrapped in what looked like toilet paper came charging into the living room. The girl ran past Morgan, up the stairs, and then out of Morgan's sight. He head a door open, then slam shut. Before he had a chance to react Devon came rushing into the room. "Morgan great you're here. You've got to help me." He grabbed Morgan's arms and gave him a little shake.

"Sure thing buddy, of course I'll help, what's the problem?"

"Chuck came over and wanted Ellie to look after Sydney Bristow's kids, but Ellie's working a double shift at the hospital. So I said I'd do it because how hard could it be looking after a four year old? In case you were wondering bro, it's hard. It's very hard."

Morgan squirmed out of Devon's grip. "Okay, okay, you need my help babysitting. Not a problem, I deal with unruly kids all the time at the Buy More." He patted Devon on the shoulder reassuringly.

A grin broke out on Devon's face. "You're a life-saver little buddy."

"Shouldn't we call Ellie?" Morgan asked.

"No!" Devon said. "I need to prove to Ellie that I can hack it at this daddy thing. I mean we already know she'll be an awesome mom, just look at how well she raised Chuck after their mom and dad split."

Morgan nodded. "True, she's very maternal. Like a warm fuzzy sweater."

"Exactly," Devon said. "But me, I'm Mr. Action-Man, and I know I'll be an awesome dad, but I haven't had a chance to prove it yet, and look at this place. I'm blowing it Morgan, this is not awesome." The sound of childish laughter followed by the toilet flushing caused a panicked look to cross Devon's face. "Oh no, what is she flushing? I swear Morgan, this kid is the devil." He turned and ran after Isabelle.

"Just remember man, she's more afraid of you than you are of her!" Morgan shouted up the stairs. "Or is that bears?" He asked himself as he followed Devon up the staircase.

Consciousness stole back to Sydney and she struggled to sit upright. When she realized she couldn't her sense snapped into full focus and she craned her head around to get her bearings. Sydney saw that she was in a darkened examination room that looked oddly familiar, though she couldn't place why. She flexed her arms and legs and found that she was bound by her wrists and ankles to the table by heavy straps. She strained against the wrist straps in an attempt to loosen them. She sighed in frustration when the buckles wouldn't budge.

"Okay Sark, I know you're watching so why don't you show yourself you bastard," Sydney yelled to the empty room.

The lights in the room flared to life and Sark walked in through the room's only door. "Ah good, I'm so glad to see you're awake Sydney," Sark said.

"Whatever you're after Sark you won't get it," Sydney said.

"Oh but I have what I want. Or should I say what my employers want and it has nothing to do with prophecy, or Rambaldi, or any of the rest of that rubbish. The Ring wanted you Sydney and I was happy to deliver you to them."

"What on earth makes them think I'll have anything to do with them?"

Sark gave a short chuckle. He walked over to the table Sydney was strapped to and rested his hands on it. "How familiar are you with the Intersect?"

"Never heard of it," Sydney said.

Sark chuckled again. "Of course you haven't. Let us for a moment pretend that's true. The Intersect is the most fabulous innovation in the intelligence community since, well ever. All the secrets of the US government encoded into a series of images and then implanted into an agent's mind. Show them the right visual stimulus and those secrets instantly spring to mind. You can even encode specialized training like hand-to-hand combat skills. Put the Intersect into the mind of a regular nobody and you get a super agent. Put the Intersect into the mind of an experienced agent, such as yourself and you have an unstoppable force. One that the Ring could use as they see fit."

"And did you see fit to tell the Ring that brainwashing won't work on me? Or did you forget about the Covenant and Julia Thorne?"

Sark flashed Sydney a tight, humorless smile. "I very clearly remember all the things you did while pretending to be brainwashed. You're the one who doesn't understand the situation she finds herself in."

"Then enlighten me, please."

Sark tapped a button on the bed Sydney was strapped to and it began to tilt, raising Sydney into an upright position. He then stepped in front of the bed so Sydney could see him without straining her neck. "The Intersect possesses the ability to take over your voluntary nervous system. Once you are imprinted with the data, the proper visuals will cause you to follow any order. You might be immune to conventional brainwashing but not this. Especially since that Project Christmas background you are so proud of makes you uniquely qualified to have the Intersect uploaded into your brain. Most people can't handle having that much information dumped on them, but not you Sydney." Sark chuckled. "Oh no, not you at all, all that glorious information is going to be beamed into your brain and after that Sydney Bristow will cease to be. I just hope for your first mission the Ring sends you to kill your precious Vaughn."

"You won't get away with this," Sydney said. She again struggled against the bindings around her wrists and ankles.

"Oh really and why is that?"

"Because Vaughn and the others will find me, because you aren't as smart as you think you are."

"If you haven't figured out where you are yet how do you expect your CIA friends to?"

Sydney looked around the room again, and with the lights on she realized where she was. "SD-6, you brought me to SD-6?"

"Yes, it has a certain close the loop appeal don't you think?" Sark reached inside his jacket and withdrew a capped syringe. "We still have a few details to clean up before the Intersect is ready for you, so why don't you take a nap until then?" Sark jabbed the syringe into Sydney's arm and she felt darkness overtake her.

Author's Notes: So I kind of stopped updating this, which was silly because the story is finished. I just really hate editing. Anyway, it is done and I should finish posting it. I'm just starting in on getting the edits for the next chapter added to the draft and it should be up soon'ish.

-sam